Guest: Pat McDermott and The Band of Roses Trilogy

Everyone, please welcome our special guest, Pat McDermott! She will be giving away a copy of Salty Roses to one commenter!

Thank you so much for your hospitality today, Vonda. I can’t think of a
better way to visit a “Fierce” blog than to feature a story packed with
pirates: Salty Roses, Book Three in my
Band of Roses Trilogy. So where did this trilogy come from?

Thanks to my Irish-American family, I once believed that Ireland meant
banshees and leprechauns, rebels and ancient kings. As I learned more about
Irish history, I found several comments stating that if High King Brian Boru had
survived the Battle of Clontarf in 1014 A.D., Ireland would be a very different
place today.

I began to wonder… What if he had survived? And then the fun began.

The Band of Roses Trilogy stars the royal Boru clan, still on the
throne of Ireland after nearly 1,000 years. The current King Brian upholds
ancient traditions, as does his daughter, Crown Princess Talty, though Talty
has a knack for landing in trouble.

In Book One, A Band of Roses,
Talty must conceal her identity to outwit assassins, but she can't conceal her
ingrained training as a warrior sworn to protect her homeland. From Japan to an
eleventh century Ireland, she finds romance and adventure, yet all she wants is
to return to her family and Neil Boru, the adoptive cousin she secretly loves
and cannot have—or so she thinks.

Book Two, Fiery Roses, plunges Ireland’s royal family into a web of blackmail and murder when the residents of rural County Mayo object to plans to run gas pipelines over their land. An arsonist tries to change their minds. One of his fires sends ardent newlyweds Talty and Neil to an ancient Etruscan-like world beset by a waking volcano.

Book Three, Salty Roses,
finds Talty overwhelmed by royal duties. She and Neil plan a cruise on a luxury
submarine to view old shipwrecks, but treachery lures them to Brittany, where a
passage tomb transports them to a world infested with pirates. Talty takes
charge of a pirate ship and its mangy crew, while Neil matches wits with a
temptress who jeopardizes his wedding vows.

Excerpts from each book are available on my website, but I’ll share one from Salty Roses now.

Neil visits Talty in her Tara Hall
office—an office she suspects is haunted.

Muffled thuds whacked the wall
on the other side of the door to Talty’s office. Neil cringed at the sound.
“How long has she been at it this time, Denis?”

“Not long, sir. Go right in.
You’ll be safe enough if you don’t distract her.” From his chair behind his
paper-strewn desk, Talty’s ever-smiling assistant spoke cheerfully, as if the
strange activity on the other side of the door was the most natural thing in
the world.

Neil supposed it was, for
Talty. He twisted the bronze doorknob and stole into the room. Talty stood on
the far side of her office, her back to him, her right arm rocking, her fingers
gripping the glinting blade of a throwing knife. The round red bull’s eye on
the wall before her looked like a numberless clock with three black-handled
knives set at three, six, and nine. A heart-stopping blur later, a fourth
juddering knife neatly filled the twelve o’clock spot.

Neil could throw a blade well
enough, had learned it as part of his Fian training. Talty had mastered the
skill, and many other martial arts, during her Japanese sojourn several years
before. He was proud of her, and more than a little in awe of her Shurikendo
proficiency.

These knives, a set of four
ten-inch carbon steel blades, had been a Christmas gift from her samurai
mentor. She claimed that throwing them not only kept her eye keen and relieved
stress, it had also helped her regain her sleek, thoroughbred, pre-baby shape.

“So,” she said, still facing
the target. “Are you enjoying the show?”

“Always, darlin’.”

She turned so fast he nearly
ducked. “Neil! I didn’t…I’m…How are you?”

If she hadn’t known he was
there, to whom had she been speaking? He crossed the room and kissed her.
“Having a tough day, love?”

“Tough? Of course not.” She
plucked the knives from the target, set them on the table, and prepared to
throw them again. “I thought my father being back would help lighten my
schedule. So I can see my son before he—” Thwack! The first knife
pierced the target dead center. “—forgets who I am. And where is my father? In
his office with his tailor, looking over swatches of material for new suits.
‘We’re still on vacation, Tal,’ he says. I couldn’t stand that hot sun
anymore,’ he says. ‘So I’m taking your mother—’” Thwack! “‘—to Scotland
for a week!’” Thwack! Thwack! The knives quivered on the target in a
neat vertical row.

Neil stared in admiration. He
knew from stolen ISF reports that Talty’s deadly aim had saved more than one
life. “Did you tell Uncle-Dad about our submarine outing next Wednesday?”

Again, she pulled the knives
from the target, this time carrying them to the wall safe where she kept them.
“Yes. He said it was a great idea. Said it’s about time I learned to manage my
schedule.”

“He’s right.”

She stopped. “What? You know
very well this isn’t my normal schedule!” Her tone was indignant, her face
flushed.

Quickly closing the gap
between them, Neil caressed her soft auburn hair. “Tal, what if, God forbid,
something happened to your father and it was your normal schedule?”

She met his gaze and sighed.
“Then I’d make some serious adjustments. But I’m thinking, Neily. We shouldn’t
go on this submarine cruise Wednesday. We should spend the day with the baby.”

“We’ve already agreed to go.
It’s only for a few hours. Donal is perfectly safe with Nanny Maude.”

“He’ll think Maude is his
mother. He won’t remember me!”

“Hell, you’re so busy, I don’t
even remember you.” He’d said it to make her laugh, but she looked as if she’d
either start crying or tossing those knives at him. Hustling to derail either
development, he squeezed her shoulders and kissed her. “We both grew up with
nannies, Tal. It did us no harm, and we both love our parents.”

In true Boru fashion, her
tiny pout curved into a spectacular smile. She placed the weapons in the wall
safe. As she shut the hinged portrait of some medieval Boru prince over the
safe, she spoke to the oil painting: “What are you looking at?”

“Am I?” She returned to the
bull’s eye and closed the small double doors that concealed it. When she’d
first found the old dartboard hidden in the paneling, Neil had helped her
transform the secret recess into a training target. Besides himself and Talty,
only Denis knew her elegant office housed the setup.

“I’ve been practicing about
fifteen minutes,” she said. “Not long enough.” She approached him with one side
of her mouth turned up in a provocative smile he knew well. “Did you have some
substitute activity in mind?”

His arms slid around her, and
hers around him. Her thigh-pressing hug left him struggling to remember why
he’d come to see her. “And they call us poor fellas rascals.”

Pat’s Bio:

Boston, Massachusetts native Pat McDermott writes romantic
action/adventure stories set in an Ireland that might have been. Autumn
Glimmer, a young adult paranormal adventure featuring Ireland’s fairies, is
the sequel to Glancing Through the Glimmer. Both books are “prequels” to
her Band of Roses Trilogy. She is currently working on a contemporary romance
set in Ireland.

Pat is a member of the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, Romance Writers
of America, and Celtic Hearts Romance Writers. She lives and writes in New Hampshire,
USA.

The USA Today bestselling author of award-winning Scottish historical romance. Her favorite pastime is exploring Scotland, and taking photos along the way. She also enjoys creating hot, Highland heroes and spirited lasses to drive them mad. She lives in the mountains of North Carolina where she is crafting another Scottish story. Please visit her website at www.vondasinclair.com

Moserod, I'm so happy you enjoyed Autumn Glimmer. As you know, it's a YA featuring Ireland's fairies, and a "prequel" to A Band of Roses. No fairies in the "Roses" books, but I suspect you'll enjoy the first book. Let me know, and thanks for stopping by!

Vonda, thanks again for your Fiercely warm hospitality. I've done a roll of the dice, and Gerri Bowen is the winner of my Giveaway. Congrats, Gerri, and my sincere thanks to everyone who stopped by to visit my Roses and me. Best of the best to you all!